Return to wonderland
by artemis89
Summary: Our beloved heroes found themself falling into Wonderland. Here, they must play the hero part and save the kingdom. Easy, you say? well, unfortunatly their problems don't stop here' Yullen, Lucky, OC
1. Chapter 1

Hello everybody!

I brought you a new fic, for make me forgive for the lateness on my other fic, 'The White Castle'.

Thanks to my beta, Flattered by Mockery, for have the patience of dealing with my bad English.

Disclaimer: thank God I don't own DGM: I would be on a permanent hiatus…

Warning: this fic is a Shounei-ai and OC. The slogan is: Don't like, don't read.

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+†+**Return to Wonderland** +†+

**Chapter 1**

The battle had gone on for ten minutes already. And what a battle.

On one side, there were four Exorcists, sent on a mission together.

Their task was to save some finders who were blocked in a little town where all the inhabitants had already become akuma, or had been killed by them. So Allen Walker, Lenalee Lee, Yuu Kanda and Lavi left to avoid losing more time, trying to help their comrades. There were four Exorcists sent; four of the better, because Komui had the feeling that the mission could become unexpectedly more complicated, and he couldn't send his beloved little sister all alone!

Damn Komui, why did he always have to be right?!

They succeeded in entering the town and helping the finders to escape while they faced the akuma, (the most of them were Level Two, dammit!) when suddenly, who appeared, if not two Noah?

And not just two 'any' Noah. Their names were Road Camelot and Tyki Mikk, probably the two most notorious and feared enemies of the Black Order (well, after the Earl, obviously). How lucky!

If before, the goal of battle was to destroy as many akuma as possible, now, with the entrance of the two Noah, things had become really complicated. The Exorcists were fighting well, but they couldn't last forever, and their lives were on the game.

"I preferred you when you acted like a good and obedient doll, you know?" said Road to the only other girl that was there.

"Well, Road, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't intend to play with you this time." Lenalee answered, dodging the little girl's mortal candles with an agile somersault, dancing with her boots that let her fly on air.

"Uhm, I don't mind, because I only want to play with my cute Allen." said the little one, clapping her hands, her eyes gleaming with malice.

The mentioned boy, hearing this, turned his head toward her. "Hell no, Road, don't start with this story again, understand?!"

"Baka Moyashi, look out!" burst out another guy suddenly; the Japanese one, who, with his long raven hair tied up in a ponytail, moved fast. The boy, with a quick movement, appeared before the white-haired Exorcist and blocked the attack of an akuma which had been directed toward him.

"It's possible that you don't even notice when you're attacked, stupid!" he cried out to the other, while he cut the akuma before him in half with a slash of his katana.

"My name is Allen, BaKanda!" was the only answer for his words, followed by "Anyway, thanks," that was barely a whisper.

"Sometimes, I think that those two will kill each other before being killed by an enemy," sighed a red-haired boy, looking at the pair.

"It's possible, but if I were in your place, I wouldn't preoccupy myself with this now, Bunny-chan," said a voice on his right. The boy turned his large hammer onto his side, just in time to block the attack that he received from the dark-haired man with golden eyes.

The impact made him take some steps backward, but he regained his position. "You have to stop calling me like that, bastard!" the red-hair scolded.

"But I can't do anything about it if you seem like a rabbit to me, boy." answered the other with a smirk.

"Shut up!"

But the older one only chuckled.

"It seems that Uncle Tyki is enjoying himself. Good for him, but I want to play too!" said Road, pouting her lips like a capricious child. And in truth, she really was just this—a spoiled girl who took lives like a game, lost in her dream world and indifferent to the pain that she brought on other humans.

The fight continued in the same way, with the Exorcists who sometimes succeeded in destroying another akuma (there were only two left now), and with the Noah that sometimes succeeded on hitting their opponents, even if not in a injurious way. It was difficult, because the Exorcists fought together, helping one other (even Kanda), and this made it more difficult to take them by surprise.

They were all reunited where once before, there had been the town square, but now, that was only the ruined set of a battle.

When finally, one of Lenalee's accurate attacks and Allen's Cross Grave killed the two last akuma, the fight stopped for a moment, while the opponents took a little rest.

"It seems that we're left in numerical disadvantage, Road," said Tyki, picking up his hat that had fallen during the fight.

"I don't think it's a big problem, Tyki." answered the girl. "We can stay and play some more, right?"

The Exorcists were in a firm defensive position, observing the Noahs' movements and breathing heavily from fatigue.

"Yes, Road, I think so."

They were ready to start the fight again, when something happened. In the middle of the square, between the fighters appeared a strange symbol which shone of a bright, green light. It was a circle, two meters in diameter, inside a complicated drawing of branch and leaves inside of it.

All of the people present remained still, looking at it, their expression astonished. They looked at each other, everyone thinking that it was the work of another, but seeing the surprise written on all faces, their confusion increased even more.

Suddenly, in the middle of the circle appeared a girl.

She was tall, approximately Lenalee's height, with very long, light-violet hair, a shade similar to lilies, that nearly touched her feet, and was tied up on two low pigtails with light blue ribbons. She wore a white shirt, long enough, and a violet gilet without sleeves on it. Her legs were partially covered by a pair of shorts and low boots, both of them coloured dark-green. She held a large book in her hands, and her eyes were closed. When she opened them, they all could see that the eyes were a dark shade of violet.

She looked around her for a moment, confused, then she noticed the people who were staring at her like she was a ghost. So she blushed a little, "Ah, s-sorry for the sudden entrance, well, I'm-" suddenly she stopped, observing the others better.

Then she smiled. "I found them!" she said, starting to jump in her happiness. "Fantastic! Master will be so proud of me."

Both the Exorcists and the Noahs stared at her with wide eyes.

"Am I the only idiot here that doesn't understand anything?" asked Lavi.

"You're probably the only idiot here, but you aren't the only one that doesn't understand anything." Kanda answered him with his usually 'polite' voice.

"Thanks Yuu-chan, now I'm feeling better. But you could have saved that comment." said the red-head with a mock hurt expression.

"Don't call me that, Baka Usagi!"

That familiar sketch, even if a little out of place at the time, woke all of them up from the state of confusion they had fallen into.

Tyki raised an eyebrow. "Who is she, a new comrade of yours?" he asked with irony.

Allen looked at him. "Do you see our uniform on her, maybe?"

"If she's not with you, and we can be absolutely assured that we don't know her, then who is she?" said Road, asking the question that they were all thinking in that moment.

The girl, meanwhile, was still jumping and bubbling about something, lost in her own world. Listening to those words, she woke up. "Oh, it's true, I didn't introduce myself. How careless!" she said laughing and slapping her forehead. "My name is Artemis. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, but the name alone is not very helpful…" said Lenalee, uncertain.

"I came here to find some…ehm…people. My Master gave me this task. You know, he's a bit too old to go around now—his back hurts—so he sent me in his place. It's my first important commission," she said with a bright smile, and eyes shining with pride.

"Oh, that makes it all clear, thanks," murmured Kanda with sarcasm.

Lenalee shot him a glare, then she went on. "And…ehm…so, you said that you found them?"

"Sure, they are here."

"And where are they, precisely?" asked Road looking around. They were the only people here.

The girl raised her finger "One, two, three and four." She said, pointing progressively at Kanda, Allen, Lavi and Tyki. "How lucky I am to find you all! Usually it's impossible to see all of them together."

The eyes of the unlucky four widened even more, didn't understanding a word.

"Tyki, you know her?" asked Road.

"Never seen her before in all my life," he said, shaking his head and lifting his hands.

The other three boys agreed with him. "Same for me," said Lavi. "Same here," came from Allen. Kanda didn't say a word, but he looked at the girl like she was completely mad (and there were high probabilities that he was right).

"Ah, it's okay. When we left, my Master didn't have me as his apprentice. Because of this, my face is new for you," Artemis assured them.

But the others continued to not understand.

Artemis's smile disappeared. She started to have some doubts. "It's possible that I took the wrong people? But they look just like the images that I saw."

She nearly opened her book, when a little melody seemed to come from the girl. She put a hand on her pocket and took out a small pocket-watch, from where the melody came. "Dammit, this stupid thing. It's been a century that it didn't show the right hour, why did it start playing now? Idiot clock!"

Her sight returned toward the guys. "Uhm, maybe he's trying to tell me that I'm right?" she thought for moment, then she smirked. "Well, in that case, we must hurry!"

Artemis opened her book. Just when she did so, the book started levitating in front of her, while the symbol under her feet began shining again.

All those present took a defensive position, not knowing what was happening.

She looked at them. "It's time to return home."

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I know that two fic in the same time are difficult to do, but I promise you that I'll try my best to keep them updated!

Let me know what you think about it, please.

Especially about my OC: I really love her, but I know that some people don't like OC in a story…


	2. Chapter 2

HI guys! I brought the second chapter here for you. Tell me what you think about it.

This chapter is dedicated to **Lochesh, Ilana-walker**, and to my dear**Bunny-tash **for review my fic. You are great!!!! Thank you!!

And a special thanks for my beloved beta **Flattered by Mockery****!**

Disc: Hell no, I won't say it again!! You already know it.

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**Chapter 2**

Artemis started reading.

_Burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge. In another moment__, down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again. _

Suddenly, some long strings of light got out from the book, and they seemed to be made by the words the girl was reading.

"What the hell…?" shouted Kanda, but he couldn't finish his sentence.

The strings headed fast toward the four. They tried to dodge them, but those things rolled up around their bodies, tying them up and starting to drag them toward the book.

"Allen! Lavi! Kanda!" "Tyki!" cried out Lenalee and Road at the same time.

"Aaah, help! Do something!" screamed Allen.

"Dammit…I can't…move," hissed Lavi, as he fought to free himself.

"What the hell are these things? I can't pass through them," said Tyki. Though he tried to use his Noah power, this kind of rope refused to let him go.

Artemis continued to read, impassibly.

_The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well. _

When she read those word, in front of her appeared a deep hole, like the one described in the book. The 'words ropes' started to converge toward the well, dragging the four guys with them.

"Dammit!" snarled Kanda. But as much as he tried to move and as much strength he used, the ropes didn't break, and neither could his katana cut them.

Lenalee moved quickly, trying to help her comrades, but one of the shining strings hit her like a whip and made her roll on the ground.

Road started to move too, but when she saw what had happened to the other girl, she changed her plan. She evoked some of her candles and sent them fast toward Artemis. But the candles were blocked, as if there was a shield around the girl, and they fell on the ground.

Meanwhile, the four arrived at the edge of the well. Despite their efforts, they couldn't free themselves.

Suddenly, the ropes vanished.

But it was too late. Their feet had already passed the edge and the only thing that remained was falling into the hole.

Lenalee screamed, trying to catch them, and Road did the same.

But, in this moment, Artemis closed her book and looked at them. "Don't worry, my princesses, I only borrowed them for a while. I'll return your knights as soon as possible."

And, with those words, she jumped inside the hole that, after her passage, disappeared.

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_Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything: then__, she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labelled "ORANGE MARMALADE" but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar, for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it. _

They ended up in the strangest place they'd ever seen.

At first, even as they were falling, it went very slowly, like they were sinking into water.

Next, the well's walls, which at the beginning had been all black, started to become more and more coloured. Bright crayon-shade colours, like they were painted by a child.

"I'm starting to think we're inside Road's dream world…" murmured Lavi, looking around with wide eyes.

"Ah yes? Then would you be so kind as to explain to me why I'm here too?" replied Tyki, sarcasm clear enough in his voice.

"Well, you could be an illusion too. Or maybe she brought you here by mistake. Even the best are wrong sometimes," said Lavi, shuddering.

"Oh yes, sure," mumbled the other, crossing his arms with an annoyed expression on his face.

A moment after they heard an 'ouch' from Kanda, they all looked at him. He was holding his head and he had a glassed jar in his hand.

"Yuu, what happe-"

"This damned thing hit my head!" he snarled and he was about to throw it away, but Allen blocked him.

"Stop, Kanda! We don't know if there is someone underneath. If you throw it, you might hit him."

"If you didn't stop to say such a stupid thing, I'd be sure who this will hit, Moyashi."

"The name is Allen! And I'm not saying stupid things. It's you who's stupid, that you can get angry with even a simple jar."

"Idiot, who is the stupid here? Says the one who can only think with his stomach."

"So you agree that, at least, I can think. Activity which, for you, is a bit unknown."

"If you don't stop, I swear I'll slice you, Moyashi. Understood?"

"Oh, I'm trembling."

Meanwhile, Tyki was looking at them, blinking like he didn't believe his eyes.

"Tell me," he started, addressing the red-haired exorcist that was observing the scene with a bored face, "Do those two always act like this?"

"If they don't act this way, I start to seriously worry," answered Lavi. Then he smiled. "To tell the truth, they really like each other, but it's difficult for them to demonstrate their feelings," he whispered.

The jar, that just a moment before was in Kanda's hands, was thrown with a terrifying speed and landed to hit Lavi's forehead hard.

"Ah! Yuu, but what-" he started, but he stopped when he saw the other two's looks.

"Try to say it again, and I swear I'll skin you alive, Usagi," hissed Kanda, his voice seeming to come directly from Hell.

"You know, for once I agree with Kanda," said Allen with a smile. A sweet and innocent smile. But one mustn't trust Allen when he smiled. He could become _really_ dangerous.

Lavi held up his hands in sign of surrender. "Okay, okay, I understand; there isn't any need to get violent. Can you explain to me why, in your fights, I'm always the scapegoat?"

The three boys heard a chuckle from the side, and they turned to see Tyki laughing lightly.

"Che, what's so funny here?" shouted Kanda.

"Ah, nothing, nothing. It's just that you three are the strangest exorcists I've ever known. Not that I've known a lot of exorcists, but you're nearly as odd as my family."

The other three looked at him with dubious faces. They wanted to reply that it would be difficult to compete with the strangeness of the Noah family, but in that moment, they heard a very familiar voice coming from above.

"Are you still 'falling'? Listen, we must hurry, this passage won't remain open for eternity."

They looked up to see Artemis descending quickly toward them, the book still in her hands.

"No, _you_ have to listen-" started Kanda, but the girl stopped him.

"Not now, I repeat that we must hurry." They heard a noise from above. When the lifted their heads for looking, they saw the hole above them starting to close. And, damn, it was fast! "See? Would you start to descend, yes or no?"

"We would be very happy to obey, if we knew how to do it," said Allen.

"It's rather funny that you ask me this. You're the expert when we talk about connections with the Other World, right?"

"But I already said that I don't know what you're speaking about!"

"Oh, well, now stop joki-" replied Artemis, but she was stopped from a loud noise, that was increasing more and more.

"Your name is Artemis, right?" said Lavi to the girl. "Take us out of here and then we can speak, okay?"

She nodded, then opened her book again, and she murmured something in a low voice.

Suddenly, the 'force' that caused their slowed falling disappeared. And they found themselves falling for real.

"Aaaahh!" was the chorus that was heard in the hole.

Luckily for them, there was some grass waiting for them underneath. They all felt on the ground, one above the other with a loud smash. Allen, Lavi, Kanda and Tyki.

"I already saw this situation." said Lavi.

"I didn't. But I can't say that I appreciate it," replied Tyki.

"Can I know why I'm always the one that ends up beneath the others?" murmured Allen. "Yet I should be the lightest here (1)."

"Che, I doubt that by looking at all the things you eat, Moyashi."

As they got up, they heard Artemis mumbling something. "Uff, look, if it's me who has to find four idiots like you."

They turned toward her; she was standing with her hands on his hips and looking at them.

"So, guys, are you all okay?"

Kanda exploded. "ALL OKAY? How can we be ALL FUCKING OKAY? You appeared from nowhere, you dragged us here against our wills and, if that's not enough, you-" he stopped "See what we're saying, in what fucking place are we?"

Artemis smirked.

"My Lords, welcome to Wonderland."

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(1) I have an idea on why you're always on the 'bottom', Allen… (*fangirlish smirk*)

Explanation-time: about my OC, I never planed to make her a Mary-Sue, I hate them. It's only that I need a character in the story for explain thing and guiding the others during the fic. She won't be 'in the way', if that's what you're thinking. Maybe she'll teasing the characters a little, but only this, I assure you!

Again thanks for the reading. R&R please!!!


	3. Chapter 3

Hi guys!! I finish my exams and now I'm enjoying my holidays^^

It may be also a little boring, because there are a lot of explanation (and they aren't even all. My mind work to much sometimes =_=)

Well, what else I have to say? Read and enjoy!^^

Note: I've posted the betaed version now. Much, much better u_u. Thanks to my beta, Flattered By Mockery^^

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**Chapter 3**

Artemis's sentence was welcomed with three pairs of questioning eyes and one, totally stupefied, green eye.

"W-wait a moment. Did you say 'Wonderland'?"

They all turned around, looking at the red-head who had spoken. He was really pale, and he looked at Artemis like she had just said that the Millennium Earl went around giving sweets out to children.

"Lavi, what's happened?" asked Allen.

"A-and before, you said the name 'Alice', right?" he gulped "But that's impossible!!"

Kanda was losing his patience. Not that there was a lot left. Not after what happened. And surely not for Lavi's strangeness.

"Oi, Baka Usagi, hurry up and explain what you're babbling about. Who the hell is this Alice?"

"Alice is a character from a children's book that I read some years ago. And the title is actually 'The Adventure of Alice in Wonderland'!"

"Are you saying-" interrupted Tyki, lifting an eyebrow, "that we are INSIDE A BOOK?!"

Finally, the light-bulb turned on, even in Allen and Kanda's minds. "WHAT?!" they both screamed, turning toward Artemis.

She only shuddered. "I'm sorry, but things are really like this. I believe you've already figured it out."

"And you think I'll believe in this idiocy?"

A vein popped out on Artemis's forehead. Then she smiled. "Well, if you have a better explanation, we are listening, little-samurai-with-female-hair."

It occurred to Allen and Lavi then, to block Kanda together from jumping at the girl and strangling her with his hands.

"I'll kill her! I swear I'll kill her!"

"Wait Yuu, calm down now. We can talk civilly."

In a second, Kanda turned, grabbing his weapon. "Now I'll cut you too, Baka Usagi!"

But when he tried to extract his sword, he found that he couldn't. "What the hell-?" He tried again but with the same result: Mugen didn't want to come out from its sheath.

"I think it's futile to continue to try," said Tyki suddenly.

The three Exorcists looked at him. "What the hell did you do, Noah?" Snarled Kanda.

"Me? Absolutely nothing. But seeing as I can't use my Noah's power, I think that your Innocence is totally unusable too." The other replied very calmly, crossing his arms.

_'Or at least, I hope so_,' he thought.

Lavi's hand immediately went to his hammer, while Allen was trying to activate his left arm without success.

"Shit, it's true, I can't invoke it! What's happening?"

Tyki smiled. It was true that he couldn't use his ability, but since the Exorcists were unarmed too, he didn't have to worry.

"It's perfectly normal," intervened Artemis, catching the others' attentions in an instant. "The magic from the Other Worlds don't work here. In this world, the rules are different, and so is the kind of magic that we use."

"Are you saying that in this world, there is magic?" asked Lavi, interested.

Artemis's look became sad. "But it's really true that you don't remember anything? Did you forget everything?" she asked, lowering her head.

Allen sighed. "You've already asked this many times. And we've already answered you, we don't know you, we don't know what you're talking about. If it wasn't for Lavi, we wouldn't even know where we are right now. So, now, would you be so kind as to give us an explanation, please?"

And he looked at Artemis, waiting for an answer.

It didn't come. The girl continued looking at the floor with her hair covering her face, silent.

After looking briefly to the others, Allen tried to walk toward her and touched her head gently with his hand. "Ehm, are you okay?"

When Artemis looked up, her eyes were full of tears.

Allen's hand was paralyzed in mid-air.

"Excellent, Boy, you made her cry," said Tyki.

"Good work, Moyashi, you made her cry," joined Kanda.

"You're really skilled at making girls cry, Allen. First Lenalee, now Artemis," added Lavi.

"B-but I didn't say anything wrong. I even said 'please'!"

Meanwhile, Artemis wasn't listening to them.

"What did I do? Did I pick the wrong people?" She put her hands on her head. "Oh no! No-no-no-no-no-no-no! What can I do now? My master will kill me. Well, if I'm lucky, he could do even worse." She continued with tears running down her cheeks.

Suddenly, Tyki sighed and walked toward the girl, catching her hands and gaining her attention.

"Listen, now calm down for a moment. What do you think about trying to explain this to all of us, from the beginning? This way, maybe we can help you. We can't do anything if we don't understand what's going on first, ne?" he said to her, smiling.

Artemis looked at him for an instant, and then she nodded slowly.

"Good."

Lavi looked at the older man with some admiration. "Wow, you're very good with the women, eh?"

Tyki shuddered. "We can say I had 'a lot of experience'."

Lavi wondered to himself why this last sentence annoyed him so much. It didn't matter to him what Tyki did, did it?

Kanda huffed impatiently. "Che. Can we start with this explanation, or do we stay here all day, giving compliments to each other?"

"Okay, we are going to do things this way," said Artemis. "I'll guide you to my Master's home and, while we walk, I'll tell you all I know. What do you think?"

"Deal."

********************

"If I remember well, your name is Lavi, right? You said you've read Alice's story some time ago. Do you still remember it?"

They'd entered in really thick woods, but they'd quickly found a small path inside it. While they were walking, they found a clearing and a little bridge on a small river. They found a lot of bifurcations on their path, but Artemis knew the way and, with her as their guide, they didn't lose time deciding which way to go.

There was one thing that they all noticed just entering the forest: there wasn't any noise. The trees were completely motionless and there wasn't any sight of birds or other animals.

Lavi smiled. "Who do you think you're talking to? I don't forget nothing, it's my work recording things."

"The book told the story of a girl named Alice who, one day, while she was reading under a tree in her garden, suddenly saw a white rabbit, wearing a vest and a pocket-watch in his hand, that was complaining about being terribly late. Surprised to see him, Alice chased after him into a hole, and she found herself inside a very strange world, called Wonderland. Here, she met a lot of strange characters, like the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar and the same White Rabbit, that she'd chased for the entire story. Finally, she arrived at the castle of the sovereign, the King and the Queen of Hearts, while their servants were the playing cards. The Queen wanted to kill Alice, but just a moment before they cut her head off, Alice woke up in her garden and understood that it was only a dream. The end," concluded the boy, shuddering.

"Tsk! Such idiocy! What was the need of writing a book about the stupid dream of a stupid girl?" Spat Kanda, annoyed.

"Besides the fact that Alice isn't a 'stupid girl', like you say, this is only the official version of the story. In reality, things are a little different." Said Artemis. "You see, most important, is that it was Alice who wrote the book."

"No way! I clearly remember that the author was Lewis Carroll (1)." replied Lavi, shocked.

"No, no. It's a mistake. This man only took Alice's story, and published it with his name. Now I'll explain everything."

"A few days after Alice had had her 'dream', walking around in her garden, she casually discovered the hole where she had chased the White Rabbit. So she started thinking that it wasn't only a dream. She prepared some things to take with her, and she jumped inside the tunnel, finding herself in this world again. Discovering that it was the passage between the two worlds, Alice started to come more and more often to Wonderland. She became friendly with the most part of the inhabitants who guided her around this realm and they helped her to run from the real soldiers, because the Queen of Hearts still wanted her head. And things went on in this way for some years."

Artemis went on with her story while the other four listened to her, more and more interested by each word.

"Unfortunately, one day, returning from one of her 'trips', she found a bad surprise waiting for her: her house was burnt in a fire. Her family was safe, but after what happened, they needed to move to another city, far from there. Except Alice didn't want to lose her new friends, and she didn't know if there was another passage apart from the one in her garden." Artemis stopped for a moment. "So she made her decision: she left a note to her parents, and she returned to Wonderland, sure to never go back to her own world."

"But this is absurd!" interrupted Allen. "How could she have abandoned her family only to live in this world?"

"Well, her family wasn't very good." Replied Artemis with a grimace. "Her father was always at work, and her mother considered the public life more important than her daughters. The only person whom Alice really loved was her older sister. But when this story happened, her sister was already out of the house because she was married, and this left nobody to Alice."

She smiled sadly. "Alice decided to live with friends that actually loved her, instead of a family that ignored her."

There was a moment of silence in the group.

"I think…I'm starting to understand a little," murmured Allen.

"Anyway," re-started Artemis, "before she left, Alice wrote the story of her trip. She thought that maybe someone, reading that script, should have found another passage into Wonderland, like her. But it seems that her script had always been considered only as a fable for children, because nobody else had ever arrived in this world after her (2)." She concluded shaking her head.

"But we're here and yet you don't explain to us why!" Spat Kanda suddenly.

Artemis chuckled nervously. "Ah yes. Well, you know, this is the most complicated part to explain."

"I really hope, for you sake, that you'll find a way to explain it."

"I really hope so, too."

Artemis was searching for a way to start again, when suddenly after a curve, they saw in the distance, a little house surrounded by a strange forest made of huge mushrooms.

"Amazing!" whistled Tyki.

"Ah, we've arrived. This is my Master's house," said Artemis with a smile. "Come on, I'm sure he'll be able to explain everything better that me." She stopped. "Even if I risk my life this way."

Lavi put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry; I'm sure it'll all be okay. My Gramps is often angry with me, but even he's never tried to kill me."

"You don't know my Master," murmured the girl.

"You don't know the Old Panda," replied Lavi.

"Come on Artemis," said Allen.

With a last sigh, Artemis started walking toward the house, followed by the others.

* * *

(1) Lewis Carroll is a pseudonym, his real name is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, but he is always remembered in this way, so I decided to use this, even if Lavi probably knows the real name (he's a Bookman, after all).

(2) All this part is pure fantasy, I invented it with my twisted head, and Carroll is probably cursing me in this moment. I hope his curses won't work…

Artemis: I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I'MGOINGTODIE!!!!

Me: don't say stupid thing. I just create you, I can't let you die.

Artemis: -sniff- so, do you love me?

Me: of course, you're my OC! (*hugs*) and I need you, I can't let those four idiots going around all alone, they would destroy everything…. Well, no this would be Komui…but they would cause a lot of trouble anyway.

Artemis: XD yeah, I won't die!!...but isn't this a little too spoiler?

Me: the readers will understand. See ya next time! ^____^ and more important, Read&Review!!


	4. Chapter 4

Hi!! ^^

I'm sorry for made you wait so much. But you already know me well, right? I'm always late. No chance to change. Sorry^^"

Anyway I hope the chapter will compensate my lateness. And remember: R&R!!! Please!!

Ah, and please, clap your hands for my beloved beta, Flattered By Mockery. I'd be lost without her help!

* * *

**Chapter 4**

When they arrived in front of the house, Artemis took a big breath, and she opened the door.

"Master, I'm home."

No answer.

"It's impossible that he isn't at home. He never leaves the house," said Artemis, raising her eyebrows.

They entered in a little hall, completely empty except for a clothes-stand and a low shelf with various ledges.

"Please take off your shoes before entering."

The others did as she said. They took off their jackets too, because the house was very warm, and they put them on the clothes-stand. After doing this, they went toward a green door that was on the other side of the room.

"Master, it's Artemis. Didn't you hear me? There are some people who want to see you," said Artemis, opening it.

_BAM!_

As she did so, she was hit on the forehead by a ticking alarm clock coming from inside. The girl fell on the floor, her eyes rolling. The other four looked at her in shock.

"Obviously I heard you; I'm old, not deaf! How many times have I told you to knock before entering?!"

"That's a good start. He could have thrown something bigger at me," moaned Artemis, slowly getting up.

The four guys entered the room with caution, fearing that some other unidentified object might fly toward them. Waiting for them was a room, completely different from everything they had expected.

It was a world of color: The walls were decorated with light-colored tapestries and cloths, the floor was covered with oriental carpet, while red and blue reigned over other colors. There were two little closets at a side of the room, while on the other; a half-open door let them see into a small room with a table full of glass objects.

In the middle, lost in a sea of pillows, sat a short man; completely bald, with a black mustache which was very long and thin, and fell from the side of his mouth. He wore green oriental clothes, and he was smoking a narghilè with an annoyed expression, as a thread of smoke went out of his lips. But what surprised his guests the most, were two long spars that he had on his head.

"Amazing!" whispered Tyki in a low voice, his eyes widening.

"This must be the Caterpillar. Wow, he really smokes the narghilè!" exclaimed Lavi with a huge grin.

"Then, girl, can you explain to me who the hell those four are?"

"Ah, well, Master, those are four 'guests' from the Other World. Their names are Yu-"

"Don't call me that!"

"-Ehm, I meant to say; Kanda, Lavi, Tyki, and Allen. Guys, this is my Master, the Caterpillar."

"Nice to meet you," answered the four boys in chorus. Well, no, to speak the truth, Kanda only said 'Che!', but the general meaning was so.

The old man looked at them for a while. The four started to feel a little uncomfortable under that sharp gaze. Their sight went to Artemis, looking for help, but she seemed even more afraid that they did, drops of sweat going down her face.

"Well, well," the Caterpillar said finally. "So those are the four adventurers, eh? I have to say that their looks changed a lot, but I suppose that the Other World could have this effect on people."

He took a big breath from his narghilè, then he let out the smoke in a sequence of little rings, that dispersed themselves in the room. He must have put in some aromatic herb, because the smell of the smoke wasn't bad; he perfumed the room and created a comfortable space.

"Come on, take a pillow and sit down. I think we have a lot of things to say."

The four boys looked at each other for a moment, before sitting down on the pillows.

"It's been a lot of time since we haven't seen each other. I'm sure you have a lot of stories to tell me, right?"

The other occupants of the room stiffened. Allen shot a brief look to the others before starting to speak. "Well, we…we really don't know…how to start…" He moved uncomfortably, not knowing how to explain the situation.

The eyes of the old man became suspicious, and he looked at Artemis, seeing that she was glancing away.

"Artemis." he said in a low, threatening voice. The girl suddenly stiffened. "Have you something to tell me? Because, you know, my suggestion is to say it _now_."

She started to sweat profusely. "Ah, well, now that I think about it, there is a thing." She chucked nervously.

"I'm listening."

She started halfheartedly, looking at her hands while she united the tips of her fingers. "Well, like, you see, I succeeded on finding the people you were looking for." She swallowed hard. "But, well, there is a little problem…"

"What?"

"They don't…well…theydon'trememberanythingaboutthisWorld." she said in a breath.

A flash of irritation passed quickly through the eyes of the old man. He looked briefly at the guys.

"It's true?" he asked.

They nodded slowly, fearing to say a word.

"You're telling me that you brought four strangers here, that don't remember anything? That maybe they're not even the people we were looking for?" The voice of the Caterpillar seemed to come straight from North Siberia.

"…"

A 'yes,' barely heard, was whispered in answer.

And as retaliation of this, the alarm clock from before hit violently against the girl's forehead again, having the same effects as before.

"IDIOT APPRENTICE! When will you finally learn to use that microscopic brain that you have, rather that do without thinking before? I told you to look properly, not to bring the first people you find!"

Tyki and Kanda were paralyzed in their seats, while Lavi and Allen hid behind them, trembling.

"Ne, Allen, this situation feels something familiar to me." (1)

"Yeah, me too." (2)

The old man sighed loudly, trying to calm himself.

"Okay, tell me everything. From the beginning."

********************

After some minutes of explanation (and an ice-bag for Artemis) the atmosphere inside the room seemed to be a little calmer.

The caterpillar took a huge breathe from his pipe before starting to speak.

"I think that the best thing we can do now is to finish the explanation. Maybe when you have the situation a bit more cleared, we can find a solution for this mess."

In the meantime, Artemis had prepared some thè, and she offered it to her guests, still comfortably sitting on the pillows.

"Like you already know, Alice left her World for Wonderland. But she had a big problem: the Queen of Hearts was still very angry with her for the old story, and she wanted to capture Alice to sentence her to death. Obviously Alice, with the help of her new friends, hid herself from the Queen's soldiers, but the situation was becoming really dangerous. The Queen ruled the reign instead of her husband, the King, who was too weak to object to her, and she did it using fear and threats. So Alice and the others started to think of a plan to defeat her."

There was a little pause and some smoke rings.

"Then, something happened that made them take a definitive decision: the Duchess was killed by the Queen, who'd accused her of hiding Alice in her house. That was the last drop: Alice and her friends, with the help of some people that had also had enough of the Queen, assaulted the castle and removed the majesty. But Alice, who didn't want further death, decided to not kill the Queen, but exiled her to another Reign far away from here, called Through the Looking-Glass Reign, ruled by the White Queen. After that, all habitants of Wonderland chose Alice to be their new queen."

"Wow, it's unbelievable how many things aren't written in the book," said Allen.

"It's always like this," replied Lavi to him. "The greater part of the truth is never written in books."

"Do you know something about it, Bookman?" asked Tyki with a smirk.

Lavi smirked in response. "Uhm, maybe something."

"Can we stop babbling and finish this?!" shouted Kanda. The story was too long and Artemis's thé was far too sweet for his taste.

"I know that judging from my words, the story seems like it'll be finishing with a classic 'and they live happy 'til the end of their lives', but unfortunately, things went differently."

Some more smoke rings escaped from his mouth.

"Alice disappeared. And the Queen of Hearts was back to claim her reign. And she was much more powerful than before."

The others' looks became wary. "What do you mean by 'much more powerful'?"

"Maybe it's better explaining something about the magic that ruled this World," said the old man. "Artemis."

The girl nodded. "Do you remember when I told you that your powers couldn't work here?" They gave signs of assent. "Well, like I said, this World had a different magic."

"Most of the habitants have magical powers. Some are simply small things, like speaking to flowers or moving trees. But as the powers rise, the abilities and the dangers of the 'spell' do too. Clear enough?"

More signs of assent.

"In this World, all magic is based on 'control': the magic gives you control over a specific thing. That is called Reign, though with some limits. For example, at the lowest level, there is control over an object, in which you can move objects in the way you want, and so forth."

"As the levels get higher, we find control over the elements and incorporeal things: for example, you can move and model water, and even if you can't create it from nowhere, you must use what you already have."

"At the last level, here, you can have control over reality itself: meaning, you can control and modify the characteristics of the World, like time and space. And even influence people."

When the girl stopped talking, the looks on the others' faces were totally stupefied.

"B-but it's…an immense power!" exclaimed Lavi.

"And here lies our problem." intervened the Caterpillar, who had listened in silence until then. "When I said that the Queen had become stronger, I meant that she obtained a maximum leveled power: her Reign is the Death."

"The Death?!" asked Tyki. "It means that she could kill everyone she wanted to?"

"No, she couldn't do that much. But she can control what is dead, like the body and the spirits of the dead."

"Like…like a g-ghost?" said Allen shivering.

The old man nodded.

"When she returned to reign this kingdom, she did atrocious things!" spat Artemis. "She killed half of her guards only to create a zombie army for her service. And if this isn't enough, she found a way to imprison the spirit of an animal inside the body of another one, modifying nature and creating monsters. She's destroying this reign and killing people only for vengeance."

From the emphasis of her words, it was clear that she'd suffered quite a lot from what was happening.

"And you didn't do anything for stop her? You've already defeated her once, why the hell are you waiting to do it again?!" spat Kanda, annoyed. He hated people who complained about their situations and did absolutely nothing to change it.

Artemis turned toward him quickly. "Do you think we didn't try?! Do you think we remained here, watching her destroy everything? Well, if so, you haven't understood anything at all! Where do you think she found the spirits that serve her? Do you know how many of us have died trying to stop her?"

Her fists were so tight that the knuckles had become white. The anger was clearly readable on her face, and even Kanda felt a little intimidated by her.

"It hadn't been easy to defeat her the first time, but know it'll be ten times worse now. The Queen has become stronger, as we have become weaker."

"Weaker? How?" asked Tyki.

This time, it was the Caterpillar who answered. "We became weaker because the strongest of us, that guided the rebellion years ago, aren't here anymore. They left this World."

"Left this World? They're dead?"

"No, they left for the Other World." Some smoke rings went toward the four, as if to frame their faces. "This is why you are here. I sent Artemis to look for them, hoping that with their help we could have done something. But it seems that you aren't the people we were looking for."

"This isn't much, but it's obvious! Come on, do we really look like four characters out of a book?!" asked Allen, mostly directed to Artemis.

The girl blushed a little. "Well, you don't even seem like normal people, if I have to say so!"

The white-haired boy opened his mouth to speak, but thinking about this, he understood that she wasn't actually _so_ wrong.

"And not only this," continued Artemis, trying to justify herself, "even if you aren't exactly the same, you resemble the people I was looking for a lot. And also, the Clock rang."

At this sentence, the spars of the Caterpillar suddenly straightened. "The Clock? But it was blocked, wasn't it?"

Artemis nodded. "I was surprised too. And I thought that maybe it meant something…"

"Ehm, if you would be kind enough to explain it to us…" intervened Lavi, but he was ignored.

"Give it to me for a moment," demanded the old man. When Artemis took the pocket watch and gave it to her master, he only took it in his hand, and closed his eyes. He remained in that position for some minutes, as silence in the room was extended.

When the Caterpillar opened his eyes, his sight went immediately on the four guys. And a little smiled appeared on his face.

"I don't like that smile, you know? It's the same as the Old Panda's," whispered Lavi to the others.

"You mean Bookman?! But I'd never seen him smile!" Replied Allen.

"Then you'd be lucky. When Gramps smiles, it means that someone else is just about to get in trouble. Generally me."

As if he hadn't heard them, the Caterpillar looked at Artemis. He pointed at the big book near the girl with a tilt of his head.

"You know, maybe your error isn't as big as I'd thought. I think we should try once, what do you think?"

Artemis face was illuminated. "Of course, Master!"

Then she looked toward the four boys, smiling. A smile which wanted to be sweet and comfortable, but which failed to be.

"It's that smile that I don't like at all. It reminds me of the smile Road has when she's just found a new doll to play with," murmured Tyki.

Kanda got up quickly. "Oi, what the hell are you planning?!" Anything they had in mind right now, he had had enough for that day.

"Don't worry" said Artemis, opening the book in front of her. "It'll be funny."

(1) insert an image of an angry Bookman with Panda's claws.

(2) insert an image of Cross with an hammer in his hand.

AUTHOR NOTE: I took the idea for the magic power from a role game called "Mage", edited by the Whitewolf. Obviously I modified it a little to adapted it at the story, I only take the idea of the Reign.


End file.
